It is the most under-reported story of the summer, and the mystery is why. Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, is well known to have had ties to notorious crime figures like Paul “Big Paul” Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family, Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, boss of the Genovese mob, and others of their ilk in New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Trump’s palling around mobsters is well-documented. So why are his Republican opponents reluctant to use his sleazy connections against him, as they surely know he would do if the tables were turned?

While the story has gone unreported on cable outlets and by the major dailies, it has been public knowledge for at least a quarter century. All an intrepid oppo researcher would need to do to uncover the facts is spend a few seconds on a Google search.

There they would find three recent stories about Trump and the mob — two in legitimate online sources — “Trump’s Mobbed Up, McCarthyite Mentor Roy Cohn,” published by the Daily Beast on July 23, 2015, and “Donald Trump and the Mob,” published on CNN.com on July 31. 2015 — as well as a story in a right-wing outlet, the Federalist, published on July 28, 2015.

In his Federalist article, David Marcus makes the point that if “Trump wants to be a serious candidate for president, and has the numbers to back it up, he must be vetted like a serious candidate for president. A good place to start is to take a hard look at Trump’s ties to Philadelphia and New York organized-crime families.”

“The Atlantic City story starts with Trump’s purchase of a bar, at twice its market value, from Salvatore Testa, a made man in the Philadelphia mafia and son of Philip ‘Chicken Man’ Testa, who was briefly head of the Philly mob after Angelo Bruno’s 1980 killing,” Marcus writes. “Harrah’s casino, half owned by Trump, would be built on that land, and Trump would quickly buy out his partner, Harrah’s Entertainment, and rename the casino Trump Plaza.”

Trump contracted with mob-owned construction and concrete companies to build his Atlantic City casino, just as he did on several projects in Manhattan, including Trump Tower, his garish Fifth Avenue headquarters. The contractor for Trump Tower was S&A Concrete Co., which was owned by Fat Tony Salerno and Big Paul Castellano, according to Marcus and other sources.

Hired Illegal Aliens

During demolition to make way for construction of the Trump Tower, Trump’s company hired illegal aliens and forced them to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for $5 per hour.

Marcus also points to an incident that ought to be of special interest to oppo researchers for Trump’s GOP foes. During the demolition of the department store that was cleared to make way for Trump Tower, Trump and his contractors hired crews of illegal aliens from Poland to take down the building — somehow managing to put dozens of “scabs” to work without incurring the wrath of local unions. The men were forced to work 12 hour days, seven days a week.

In 1991, Trump was found guilty of conspiring with union officials to hire the Polish workers who were in the United States illegally in order to avoid paying union pension and welfare-fund contributions. During the trial, Trump — who constantly brags about his superior management skills — blameshifted the hiring of the illegals onto underlings. The judge found him guilty nonetheless and imposed a $1 million fine.

“When the rubber hit the road Donald Trump didn’t walk the walk,” writes David Marcus, “he lined his pockets and sold out American workers.”

Five Questions for Trump

A Google search also produces an article published on July 1, 2015, by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston titled, “21 Questions for Donald Trump.” Questions six through 10 probed into Trump’s mob activities:

6. Trump Tower is not a steel girder high rise, but 58 stories of concrete. Why did you use concrete instead of traditional steel girders?

7. Trump Tower was built by S&A Concrete, whose owners were “Fat” Tony Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, and Paul “Big Paul” Castellano, head of the Gambinos, another well-known crime family.

If you did not know of their ownership, what does that tell voters about your management skills?

8. You later used S&A Concrete on other Manhattan buildings bearing your name.

Why?

9. In demolishing the Bonwit Teller building to make way for Trump Tower, you had no labor troubles, even though only about 15 unionists worked at the site alongside 150 Polish men, most of whom entered the country illegally, lacked hard hats, and slept on the site.

How did you manage to avoid labor troubles, like picketing and strikes, and job safety inspections while using mostly non-union labor at a union worksite — without hard hats for the Polish workers?

10. A federal judge later found you conspired to cheat both the Polish workers, who were paid less than $5 an hour cash with no benefits, and the union health and welfare fund. You testified that you did not notice the Polish workers, whom the judge noted were easy to spot because they were the only ones on the work site without hard hats.

Casino License Was Not Revoked

Finally, another quick Google search also produces a review of Wayne Barrett’s book on Trump’s corrupt connections written by David Cay Johnston in 1992.

“‘Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,’ by Wayne Barrett, asserts that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has failed to examine how Trump’s life ‘intertwines with the underworld,’ Johnston wrote then. “It also alleges that the Casino Control Commission has denied licenses to others for conduct far less serious than what the book alleges Trump has done.”

Key among these assertions is that in 1983, after Trump had obtained a casino license, he met with Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, at the Manhattan townhouse of Roy Cohn, a lawyer who represented both men. The book cites an unnamed eyewitness as its source.

Other casino executives have had their licenses revoked or were denied a license just for being photographed in the company of major organized-crime figures, including Salerno.

At the time of the purported meeting, Trump was using a concrete company called S&A to build his Trump Plaza condos in Manhattan, according to federal court records cited in the book. S&A was controlled by Salerno and Paul Castellano, then head of New York’s Gambino crime family, according to those same records.

Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor, was a powerful but disreputable lawyer who made his name in the 1950s as the chief council for disgraced Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunting committee. In 2003, Al Pacino won an Emmy for his portrayal of Cohn in the HBO miniseries, “Angels in America,” in which Cohn was depicted as loathsome, self-hating, closeted and dying of HIV disease. In fact, Roy Cohn died from AIDS-related causes in 1986.

Back in 1992, in response to Barrett’s allegations, Trump issued a statement that sounds eerily similar to his thin-skinned responses to criticism today. After claiming that he had not read the book, he called Barrett “a second-rate writer who has had numerous literary failures.” Trump described the book, which, again, he said he had not read, as “boring, non-factual and highly inaccurate.”

For the record, Wayne Barrett had a long career as a writer for the Village Voice and his books, including “The Big Apple: City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York,” have been quite successful.

Again, Why the Silence?

So what’s going on here? Why are Trump’s Republican opponents silent about his mob connections?

According to one noted mob expert, the reason the other candidates won’t expose Trump’s mob ties is that they all equally mobbed up. Exposing him would expose them all. It’s hard to imagine such a fractious cabal of self-serving strivers adhering to omertà. On the other hand, there is ample historical evidence of mob influence in politics.

It’s possible, perhaps, these Republican candidates are afraid that the notoriously litigious Trump might sue them. This seems unlikely. These facts are on the record, and there’s no evidence he sued Wayne Barrett or David Cay Johnston after they exposed his mob connections in the early 1990s.

Or maybe Trump’s opponents are holding fire based on political calculation. It would be more effective to unleash their attacks after Labor Day when voters are more likely to be focused on the campaign.

If so, it’s possible one of them could be waiting to achieve maximum impact by sticking the shiv between Trump’s ribs on live television during the next debate.

All presidential candidates have to be vetted but unless someone finds dead bodies in a trunk stored in Mr. Trump’s Plaza residence, this is not enough for me to stop supporting Donald J. Trump. Like the other candidates, I don’t expect all of his business deals to be without blemish and certainly not shocked he came into contact with the mob or that his subordinates hired illegal immigrants. The mob controls New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey. This is just another area where the government was unsuccessful in fighting crime and the mob managed to gain control. Funny, the mob is like the government and government like the mob. The fact that Trump remained successful and continues growing his empire is a testimony to his ability to negotiate with others, even the mob.

He is bought and immensely in the pockets of criminals and that’s OK? Is there no limit to your hypocrisy? You cry when the police is under fire and tout them as heroes when these mobs are allowed to run the city, county and significant parts of this country w/out fear and you and the police departments look away. You are a pitiful excuse for an American. STFU!

LOL you dopes. Every single concrete contractor in Jersey was mob and so were most other building trades. Restaurants etc. Jersey actually did not such a bad job containing them in At Cy when casinos started.

LOL listen to Trump’s little army of bedwetting apologists. Show them his clear ties to organized crime and they say so what? He really could kill someone and his slobbering supporters wouldn’t care. What a country, if his nitwits actually get him elected the USA will become a total joke.

And, who cares. How many of the other big political families have been associated with the “mob”? #DonaldTrumpForPresident Looks like we need a few mobsters in the WH to take care of things. (Such as Mr. & Mrs. Obama).

Looks to me that Mrs Clinton is well protected not sending help to Benghazi letting Americans then falling ill to put off answering so they can get there story straight also 8 years ago they where going to help the immigrants nothing yet full of lies while her bill personally well worth 100 million dollars and the fbi still not moving forward sounds like the Washington mop the middle class is tired of paying she a big Wall Street protector if poor black people and Mexicans want to go on believing her she got four more years of it for you she big on trade so no jobs here for the poorly educated.

Trump is winning like a boss n isn’t sum racist Mike Tyson Ben Carson n plenty of minorities of all races support but the corrupt gop is hiding the truth the kkk r dumb n have no life n always start shit he’s a city guy with mob ties he’s not sum hick! So fuck haters! U rock da don

What the American media isn’t telling us, is as revealing us as the news itself. It isn’t Radical Islam, or immigrants, that threaten our nations. Organized crime and their partners in crime, corrupt sockpuppet leaders establishing socialist kleptocracy, are looting our nations.

After the iron curtain fell it was apparent that criminal organizations, and the Russian government worked hand in hand in Russia. Russian Oligarchs were immediately established and they dispersed around the world.

The media rarely mentions the fact that contemporary Russian criminal organizations are the most dangerous in the world. They are expert at white collar financial crimes, and have infiltrated Western nations including the US stock market and banking system.

As the cold war ended in the Soviet Union, the Russian mafia remained strong and spread throughout the world. The Rose Revolution was credited for combating organized crime, but the reality is that the organizations simply spread to Europe and the rest of the world.

2014: Why Putin Might Blame the U.S. for Russia’s Drugs Problem
“Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan, already the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin, threatens to exacerbate the drug problem in Russia and stoke tensions between President Vladimir Putin and the U.S.”

“When the Soviet Union fell apart, Russian organized crime was unleashed unto the world. Russian organized crime can now be found everywhere, from the US to Israel to Spain and England. The Russians can be considered to be among the most powerful criminals in the world.”http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview

Global media has Europeans and Americans focused on immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, but the truth is that EU Oligarchs and Russian organized criminal networks are the biggest threats to the world today.

The lesser known nations receiving $Billions of US tax payer dollars are interesting in light of the 2016 US elections. There is an equally interesting pattern of funds going into Eastern European nations, such as Georgia and Turkey.

The media silence regarding Donald Trump’s business dealings in these nations is deafening.

Donald Trump’s ties to Russian organized crime have been hinted at over the years, but they were inadvertently well documented in a 2006 article in NYMag.

Trump Soho Is Not an Oxymoron
“The mob ties came to light on December 17, (2006) when the Times published a pointed profile of 42-year-old Felix Sater, a no-title principal in Bayrock (Trump Soho Partner). Like Tamir Sapir, Sater was a Russian immigrant with family and business roots in Moscow”http://nymag.com/news/features/45591/index2.html

Donald Trump Relationship Maphttp://www.muckety.com/Donald-Trump/3866.muckety
Samuel Lindenbaum, Former Dean of NY Zoning is a “client” of Trump.
Trump Funder of the Bill, Hillary, Chelsea Foundation
Friend of Russian Oligarch Dimitri Rybolviev Who Purchased Real Estate for More than the Value in 2008 (Money Laundering)

2010: Trump Takes on Tbilisi Real Estate Markethttp://www.eurasianet.org/node/62014
“Saakashvili worked feverishly to help close the deal, twice visiting Trump at his New York headquarters during the run-up to the announcement. [For details, see the EurasiaNet.org archive.] The president’s efforts were understandable when placed within the context of Georgia’s recent experience.”

There is a good chance the mobster buttboy Trump and his subhuman Mafia cronies will be running the USA come next January. In my opinion, some people would do whatever it takes, no holds barred, to prevent this from happening.

Well, now that you mention it, it’s obvious that Trump is mob material-he was born into money, in New York, owns casinos & hotels with him & his dad’s name on it, has the attitude of a bulldog, claims he doesn’t lie-perfect picture of a mob man

While we trouble ourselves about presdential wins, YAH knows whom he ordains at partiular moments, but all for your good if you want to be good and for bad if you want to be bad, that he may be glorified.

It is January 27, 2017 and Trump has made his inauguration speech for the Presidency. He is going to spend billions of dollars on the wall around Mexico. He is trying to cut federal funding from California, because we have an acceptance of Mexicans here. After all it was there land until Grant rode through and they gave it to us to stop the bloodshed of their families. Do any of you remember that remark he made about most immigrants being murderers and worse? And just a week later a wholesome young woman was murdered on a pier by a “random” immigrant who was wanted for multiple murders. What a coincidence. Her family was outraged that he used the incident to justify his remark (which almost cost him his nomination) and never called them to express sympathy or offer help. I think he caused it to happen, It is just way to coincidental. Everything he is doing, every person he has appointed is going to harm this country, and we are in an environmental crises that the govt. is keeping from us. Even the mafia can’t be so stupid to think he is going to be good for anyone’ future, anymore then they are for this country. People who only care about business need to cease to exist.

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Enumerati

67%

A new CBS News poll finds that while 55% of Americans disapprove of the way President Trump reacted to the violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, 67% of Republicans approve of his response.

A new PRRI survey finds that 40% of Americans — including nearly three-quarters of Democrats but just seven percent of Republicans — back impeaching President Trump and removing him from office.

Enumerati

16

ThinkProgress notes that just 16 of 292 Republicans in Congress have released statements that call out Trump directly by name or title for his comments.

Enumerati

3x

Consider this: In the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection there are three times as many statues of Confederate soldiers and politicians as there are statues of black people in the entire Capitol complex, according to records maintained by the Architect of the Capitol, the Washington Post reports

Enumerati

34

Washington Post: PayPal has agreed to removed at least 34 organizations, including Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute, two companies that sell gun accessories explicitly for killing Muslims, as well as all accounts associated with Jason Kessler, the white nationalist blogger who organized the Charlottesville march, according to a list provided to the Post by Color of Change, a racial justice organization seeking to influence corporate decision makers.

Verbatim

“If allowed to continue along this senseless path, Mr. Trump will do lasting harm to American society and to our standing in the world. By his words and his actions, Mr. Trump is putting our national security and our collective futures at grave risk.”

Verbatim

“The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America. We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head.”

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been publicly silent so far over President Trump’s latest remarks on Charlottesville, “is privately upset” with the president’s handling of the episode, CNN reports.

Verbatim

“I’m sorta glad that them people got hit and I’m glad that girl died. They were a bunch of Communists out there protesting against somebody’s freedom of speech, so it doesn’t bother me that they got hurt at all. … I think we’re going to see more stuff like this happening at white nationalist events.”

— Justin Moore, the Grand Dragon for the Loyal White Knights of Ku Klux Klan, said he was glad that a woman died in Charlottesville when a car drove through a crowd, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Verbatim

“If Trump finally pushes Bannon out of the White House, the nationalist policy project will be all but dead. The new chief of staff, John Kelly, is far more moderate on immigration and has pushed Trump to abandon the idea of a physical border wall. Economic policy will be fully under the control of Cohn, and the heretical idea of raising taxes on the wealthy will have no champion. Trump himself has always been more animated by the xenophobia of Bannonism than by its populist economic views. A Trump White House without Bannon will be no more radical in its coddling of far-right groups—today Trump showed again that he needs no encouragement—but it will be more captured by the traditional small-government agenda of the G.O.P. Bannon hoped to destroy.”

Verbatim

“What is Robert E. Lee known for? This is what I mean by the margins of the debate. Lee is known for one thing: being the key military leader in a violent rebellion against the United States and leading that rebellion to protect slavery. That’s it. Absent his decision to participate in the rebellion he’d be all but unknown to history. He outlived the war by only five years. There’s simply no positive side of the ledger to make it a tough call. The only logic to honoring Lee is to honor treason and treason in the worst possible cause.”